At First Sight
by Shadow Padawan
Summary: Antonin Dolohov's sorting and the first time he sees Bella Black. Pre-het.


The bright light of the Great Hall of Hogwarts was somewhat blinding after the half-gloom of the antechamber. The squiggly queue of first years followed Professor Signad through the large double doors, looking around with an air of awe. Whispers and giggles were heard at random, followed by a small amount of jostling. The group lined up at the front of the hall before four long tables crowded with students and behind a stool on which sat a very ragged-looking witch's – or perhaps wizard's, at this point it was hard to tell – hat.

A fairly tall boy somewhere toward the back with wavy brown hair and crystal grey eyes eyed the hat with a mixture of apprehension, curiosity, and perhaps even skepticism.

"Antonin, look, it's the Sorting Hat," the boy behind him, one gangly, dark haired, dark eyed Augustus Rookwood, hissed excited behind him with a slight nudge.

"I've noticed," Antonin replied evenly.

Professor Signad was now speaking about the process of sorting and then out of nowhere the hat began to sing. There were various cries of amazement and squeals of surprised followed by contemptuous sniggers and whispers of, "mudbloods."

The hat's song was met by general applause from the hall at large and an increase of excitement from the first years. Professor Signad unrolled a long peace of parchment and drew himself up importantly before speaking. "Adams, Luke."

A badger-faced boy scuttled out of line and nearly tripped over his own feet on his way to the stool. When he finally managed to clamber on, the hat was so large for his head that it dropped down past his chin.

Augustus snickered. "Five galleons says Hufflepuff."

"That's too easy," Antonin complained, not even bothering to look back at the other boy. Antonin had met Augustus on the train and they seemed to get along nicely. Augustus was better informed about the English wizarding world and Antonin, who's family had immigrated to England from Russia shortly after his birth and had kept largely to themselves, took the opportunity to pick up on what details he was able to during the several-hour ride. Rookwood had managed to tell him all about the four Hogwarts houses and Antonin had already made up his mind as to where he wanted to end up. It wasn't a particularly difficult choice, especially since the only other people about his age that he had managed to befriend already – Andre Rosier and Theodore Mulciber – were in that House.

"Hufflepuff!" The awkward Adams boy was finally released from the stood and sent toward the table of his new House.

"Took the old rag long enough," Augustus sighed.

"Alvieres, Nicollet."

"Oh! That's a scandalous one!" Augustus seemed to be bursting with excitement.

"Why?" Antonin whispered back, keeping an eye on the dirty-blonde haired girl whose glasses were jumping up and down rather comically on the bridge of her nose.

"Because she's a half-blood. Her father is a mudblood but her mother, her mother is the oldest Greengrass daughter of her generation. The most beautiful too, or so they say. It was a horrible time for her family. Especially since their only son at the time was a squib. At least their youngest daughter married well. But the Greengrass heir was then the father's oldest nephew. Really horrible for them all, as you must imagine."

Antonin nodded thoughtfully as the Anderson girl made her way toward the Ravenclaw table.

"You're such a girl, Rookwood," came a voice from behind Augustus. A girl's voice. Antonin turned to see who it was but Augustus was obstructing his view.

"Bellatrix, don't push it."

The girl laughed, her voice ringing in the once again silent hall. "Or you'll do what? You wouldn't dare touch a lady."

"You're not a lady," Augustus muttered, turning away. The girl, Bellatrix, laughed amusedly again, not caring for Rookwood's obvious annoyance.

Antonin didn't have to wait long to get a look at the girl who had managed to make Augustus fall quiet despite his dismissive attitude toward her. Bellatrix Black. So this was the eldest daughter of the Black family – one of the oldest, richest, and most influential pure-blood families in England. Antonin's first impression of the girl was that she looked much like a witch would look in a muggle children's book. All fair skin, dark, burning eyes, long fingered hands, boisterous, black locks that framed her face. As soon as the hat touched her head it let out a screeching cry of, "Slytherin!" Jumping off the stool, Bellatrix turned and in the most un-lady like manner stuck her tongue out at Augustus. Antonin found himself smiling despite Rookwood's frustrated sigh.

"Now I have to be in the same House with her," he complained.

"How are you sure?" Antonin asked.

"Almost my whole family has been in Slytherin. I'm bound to end up there. I mean, that's a good thing in general. But the Black Brat is just frustrating."

"She's…interesting." Antonin shrugged, not daring to look at Augustus. The other boy snorted. "I personally don't know where I'll end up," he mused, hoping to move the conversation to less dangerous territory. "Both of my parents went to SSM. Andre and Theodore said I would do well in Slytherin but they never really talked about it much."

"You know the Rosiers and Mulcibers?"

Antonin opened his mouth to answer that he didn't live in complete seclusion after all. But he was interrupted, and somewhat startled, by the sound of his own name being called.

"Dolohov, Antonin."

"Good luck," Augustus said with a smirk, giving him a small push forward.

Antonin, trying to quench his nervousness, walked determinately toward the stool. The hat was large enough to where it fell over his eyes, plunging his vision into darkness. The voice, that almost seemed to be inside his head, startled him a bit, though he managed to not flinch.

"Ahhh…Interesting, very interesting," the hat cooed. "Courage. Most noble courage. And conviction, at such a young age. A bright mind. And, oh, but what ambition, I sense."

_Not Gryffindor, not Gryffindor_, Antonin thought desperately, afraid that the hat was leaning toward putting him _there_. That was the last House he wanted to be in.

"Not Gryffindor, hm? Are you certain? It would be a fine match… No? Well, then there is only one other alternative…Slytherin!"

Relieved and overall satisfied with himself, Antonin tipped the hat off his head, threw a victorious look over his shoulder at Augustus who gave him a thumbs up, and trotted happily toward the Slytherin table. As soon as he reached the Slytherin table, Antonin found himself assaulted by Andre Rosier and Theodore Mulciber. The two second years jumped on top of him from both sides, laughing excitedly.

"We knew you'd make it to Slytherin, Tony!" Andre declared happily, dragging him into a seat beside himself at the long table. "I don't see what you were so worried about, Teddy. He's not one bit Ravenclaw."

Mulciber shrugged. "Well, you never know do you." Antonin smiled widely at them and looked around the table for the pretty Black girl. She was at the opposite end, speaking with two other girls, throwing her head up impetuously as she spoke. Antonin had never had much of an interest in girls; he was at the age when the two genders tended to stay well apart from each other.

"Tony, what are you looking at?" Andre's question bought him out of his thoughts and, shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Antonin turned back to his friends just as a boy named Rodolphus Lestrange took the stool at the front of the hall.

"Nothing," he answered briskly. "Nothing at all." Lestrange was to join them at the Slytherin table. Rodolphus took the first seat he found at the very front end of the table and didn't seem too inclined to make conversation with anyone.

"Lestranges," Rosier said in way of explanation, noticing Antonin's interest. "They're all a bit to themselves."

Several minutes later Augustus joined them – "scoot over, Tony, you always take up so much room" – and Antonin lost any interest he had for the sorting.


End file.
